Legends Never Die (5 Year Anniversary)＜限定盤/Eternal Purple Vinyl＞

In December of 2019, rapper/songwriter Juice WRLD died at the height of fame, just days after his 21st birthday. This tragic loss came months after the rapper had taken his second studio album, Death Race for Love, to the top of the charts, his distinctive blend of emotionally vulnerable lyricism and infectious genre-bending songcraft becoming a ubiquitous sound unto itself. Posthumous album Legends Never Die arrived less than a year after his passing, and offers further evidence of the late artists gifts for self-inspection and exceptionally constructed hooks. Conversations is as catchy as a song about demonic visions and mental disturbance gets, with soft synth lines and a booming trap beat underscoring Juice WRLDs anxious, depressive observations. Tell Me U Love Me gets some assistance from Trippie Redd and the gentle, heartbroken ballad Lifes a Mess features vocals from Halsey. Juice WRLDs general subject matters -- despair, substance abuse issues, loneliness and searching for authentic happiness -- already make for emotionally weighty songs, and listening to him sing from beyond gives Legends Never Die an impenetrably somber atmosphere. Allegedly Juice WRLD recorded over 2,000 songs that were unreleased at the time of his death, and the ones that surface here are in some ways stronger than the often disjointed and sometimes overly dramatic material that made up the albums released while he was alive. Legends Never Die is as strong a collection of Juice WRLD songs as any, with already-searing songs made more intense by the shadow of their departed creator looming over the album. ~ Fred Thomas

若年層を中心に支持されていたアメリカのアーティスト、ジュース・ワールドのサード・アルバムにして遺作。ラップと歌を奔放に行き来するスタイル、艶かしくも幼さを残した歌声、ヒップホップを軸にしつつブリンク182といったロックの要素も飲み込んだサウンドなど、これまでの作品でも見られた魅力が進化している。ストレートに感情を表した歌詞も相変わらずで、あまりの率直さに心の奥底で渦巻く拭いきれない青臭さが反応し、むず痒くなる瞬間も多い。21歳の若さでこの世を去った男の作品、という側面を抜きにしても楽しめるが、それを完全に無視することは難しい。みずからの夭逝を悟っていたかのような"Wishing Well"の歌詞は、とても強烈で耳から離れない。
bounce (C)近藤真弥